Church of St Celynin

Church of St Celynin

A parish church of Grade I importance, built as a single structure with nave and chancel under one roof of notably wide plan. The church is constructed of local coursed stone, roughly dressed, with distinctive large stones visible in the upper courses, particularly on the south wall. The stonework in the lower courses may be a survival from an earlier church on the site. A raised band runs below the eaves on the north and south walls. The slate roof has tiled cresting and sits behind coped gables.

The south porch, possibly dating to the 17th century, has a coped gable surmounted by a gabled bellcote housing a single bell dated 1842. An accompanying inscription commemorates the construction of a new church in Llangelynin. The round-headed entrance has a simple projecting hood mould, and an east wall contains a narrow window. Inside the porch is a corbelled stoup and a pointed south doorway with a boarded door.

The south wall of the chancel contains a 2-light square-headed late-medieval window with cusped lights, sunk spandrels and a hood mould. An inserted 2-light wood-framed window is set high towards the centre of the south wall. The east wall has a simple round-headed window with splayed voussoir head and drip mould. Three windows in the north wall are probably 19th-century insertions and are simple wooden-framed windows, with the westernmost window positioned immediately below the eaves. The north doorway is said to be a 19th-century insertion, comprising a simple arch with voussoirs and a boarded door with vertical ribs. A blocked narrow window is set very low towards the east end of the north wall. The west wall, where ground level is lower, has a distinctive battered plinth and a single narrow round-headed window.

The interior reveals that the nave and chancel are structurally undivided, separated only by a low screen, with stone-flagged floors and whitewashed walls. The roof dates to the 16th century and comprises five bays with king- and queen-post trusses sprung from wall posts carried on rough stone and wood corbels and braced to the tie beams. Wall posts, braces and tie beams are moulded in all trusses, but the three easternmost trusses are more richly worked, possibly indicating that the original division between nave and chancel was set further west. Only the wall posts and tie of the western truss are original. The roof features a distinctive flat ridge beam and moulded wall-plates, except in the westernmost bay. Later boarding is positioned behind the rafters. The sanctuary has a later boarded ceiling with a decorative ridge panel. Shallow segmental-pointed recesses in the north and south chancel walls were probably originally tomb recesses.

Three post-Reformation wall paintings survive as fragments. The west wall contains a Memento Mori discovered in 2003, the upper portion of which was probably lost when a west gallery was inserted. The nave north wall bears a fragmentary inscription reading "yn gwneuthur", part of the second Commandment, and part of Psalm 26 in English, uncovered by Harold Hughes during restoration in 1917. The chancel screen is probably 18th-century in its present form but may be assembled from pieces of an earlier screen. The lower north panels have pierced decoration and date to the 16th century, possibly from a former rood screen. The lower south panels are simpler and more recent. Both sides have turned rails to the upper section and central gates of similar character. The polygonal wooden pulpit, possibly also 18th-century, is in a more refined idiom and incorporates panels with reed-moulded decoration.

The church retains a remarkable and virtually complete set of benches said to date from 1823. These simple benches record the names and addresses of their occupants and include a complete hierarchy from vicar and gentry to servants' benches against the west wall. Other fittings include a late-medieval font comprising a simple octagonal bowl on a rectangular plinth, and a chandelier dated 1843. The north wall displays a Decalogue board in Welsh with "Robert Pughe, Wiliam ... 1796" painted on the frame. Two memorial tablets are set in the east wall: a plain marble tablet commemorating Mary Thomas (died 1785), and an oval tablet with a scrolled surround surmounted by a Bible and winged cherub, though its painted inscription has worn away.